The Health Care Cost Curve Is Bending

The Health Care Cost Curve Is Bending

This is the ratio of health care jobs to all jobs. As you can see, in 2013 it's been falling.

This sort of thing is the concrete manifestation of a bending health care cost curve. It happened in the late-1990s as well when HMOs were containing health care spending. The difference was that back then overall employment was booming, so it only took a minor kind of restraint in health care job growth to push the ratio down. So far 2013 has been a year of growth, but far from a boom year. Nonetheless, the non-health economy is adding workers faster than the health economy is even while the population ages.

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